The following news release was written by Generations Network staff. Note that although the records are being announced as available at Ancestry.co.uk, all the records described in this release are available on Ancestry.com as part of the World Deluxe subscription, as well as on Ancestry.co.uk.
One in two Brits with ancestors are found in the collection, including J.K. Rowling, David Beckham, Britney Spears and Patsy Kensit. The collection will have seventy-seven million records when complete, including workhouse, parish, and school. Other famous names include Oliver Cromwell, Samuel Pepys and William Blake. An estimated 165 million people around the world have an ancestor in the collection, including more than half of the British population. (ii)
The definitive collection of records detailing the rich history of London and its inhabitants over 400 years is available online for the first time today at leading social and family history website Ancestry.co.uk, in partnership with London Metropolitan Archives and Guildhall Library Manuscripts following a competitive tender by the City of London to digitise and exclusively host their collection online.
Starting with records from London’s infamous Victorian workhouses memorably depicted by Charles Dickens in Oliver Twist, the London Historical Records, 1500s-1900s will include more than 77 million records, providing an unprecedented insight into the colourful history of one of the world’s greatest cities.
Key record types include parish and workhouse records, electoral rolls, wills, land tax records and school reports. According to a recent family history survey, more than half of the current British population will have an ancestor in the London Historical Records, 1500s-1900s.
Furthermore, it is estimated that approximately 135 million people from the U.S., Canada and Australia will also be able to trace ancestors in the collection due to London’s status as the city at the centre of the British Empire for centuries2.
Assembled over time direct from various London institutions, the collection includes the names of millions of ordinary Londoners alongside famous and infamous figures from the city’s past. Notable examples include Oliver Cromwell’s marriage record, the baptism record for poet Samuel Pepys and the burial register listing for writer and statesman John Milton.
A number of modern day celebrities can also find ancestors within the collection. JK Rowling’s 3x great-grandfather, William Richard Rowling, appears in the Mile End marriage registers for 1872, while Patsy Kensit’s ancestor Thomas Kensit can be found in Shoreditch Baptism records from 1815. David Beckham’s London roots are also well documented; with his 3x great- grandparent’s marriage listed in the collection. Even international pop star Britney Spears can find her great-grandfather, George Portell, listed in the Tottenham marriage records for 1923.
The workhouse or ‘Board of Guardians’ records now online contain the names of anyone who was born, baptised or died in a London workhouse in the 19th and early 20th century. During this time, men, women and children who couldn’t support themselves were forced to live in these institutions, working long hours in tedious jobs in exchange for minimal food and board.
The conditions were kept intentionally poor to deter others and unofficial beatings or starving of inmates were not unheard of. Overcrowding was also a major problem, compounded by the influx of Irish immigrants after the potato famine of the mid 19th century. While conditions improved slightly in the early 20th century, the workhouses were still a feared ‘last resort’ by most until their abolition in 1930.
The workhouse records cover 12 key London regions (iii). Also included today are a variety of workhouse creed registers, admissions, discharges, apprenticeship papers and lists of ‘lunatics’.
Workhouse records are just one of the record types which comprise the London Historical Records, 1500s-1900s. Others include:
Parish Registers – from 1538, priests had to keep records of all baptisms, marriages and burials in their parish. These records are taken from over 10,000 Greater London parishes, and as they pre-date both civil registration and censuses, they are the essential ‘next step back’ for people wishing to trace their family history beyond the 19th century
- School Admissions and Discharges – contain records taken from 800+ London schools dating from the early Victorian times through to 1911. They provide admission details and information about millions of London students
- Non-Conformist Registers – details the birth, baptism, death and burial of religious dissenters who did not worship at the established church in England from 1694 to 1921. The majority of the records are for Methodist, Baptist and United Reformed churches, although there are smaller collections of other denominations such as Quakers and Seventh Day Adventists
- Diocesan Divorce Exhibits – one of a number of interesting records from the London diocesan courts, when applying for divorce, a husband or wife would submit evidence for their partner’s marital failings, including love letters, witness accounts and sworn testimony, which were then kept on record.
Josh Hanna, Senior Vice President of Ancestry, comments: “We estimate that half of Brits will be able to find an ancestor in this collection, which pre-dates civil registration and censuses, and documents the history of a great city and its people, their birth, poverty, fortunes, faith, education, marriage and death.
“No city in modern history other than London can claim to have been the capital of such a far reaching empire, which really is why this collection is of such significance not only to Brits, but also to many others around the world with ancestral ties back to England.”
Dr Deborah Jenkins, Assistant Director of the City of London’s Department of Libraries, Archives and Guildhall Art Library, comments: “We were delighted to work with Ancestry.co.uk to digitise this impressive collection of documents.
“Not only will this mean that millions of people will be able to access this resource from the comfort of their own homes all over the world – it also ensures that we will be able to support the long term preservation of the documents and provide fast, free access to researchers who visit our sites.”
ABOUT ANCESTRY.CO.UK
Ancestry.co.uk has more than 820 million names in collections including the most comprehensive online collection of England, Wales and Scotland Censuses from 1841 to 1901, the England and Wales Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes, 1837-2005, World War One British Army Service and Pension records, UK and Ireland Parish and Probate Records and the British Phone Books, 1880-1984.Ancestry.co.uk was launched in May 2002 and is part of the global network of Ancestry websites (wholly owned by The Generations Network, Inc.), which contains seven billion names in 27,000 historical record collections. To date more than 9.3 million family trees have been created and 915 million names and 16 million photographs uploaded. 7 million unique visitors logged on to an Ancestry website in January 2009.*
The Ancestry global network of family history websites: www.ancestry.com in the US, www.ancestry.co.uk in the UK, www.ancestry.ca in Canada, www.ancestry.com.au in Australia, www.ancestry.de in Germany, www.ancestry.it in Italy, www.ancestry.fr in France, www.ancestry.se in Sweden and www.jiapu.com in China.
*comScore, Unique Visitors, January 2009About London Metropolitan Archives
London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) is the largest local authority record office in the United Kingdom. It manages and provides public access to 80KM of archives, photographs, plans, audio-visual and printed material dating from 1067 to the present day – an enormous amount of information about the capital and its people. LMA is the premier destination for family historians tracing their roots in the London area and for learning about any aspect of the capital’s past.About Guildhall Library
The Manuscripts Section of Guildhall Library is the local record office for the City of London (the “Square Mile”). Its holdings date from the 11th century and include the archives of the Diocese of London, St Paul’s Cathedral, the City wards and parishes, and around 80 of the City livery companies.
- (i) When complete in 2010
- (ii) London roots – research methodology
In order to estimate the percentage of the population with London roots in four major countries (U.S., Canada, Australia and the UK), more than 9,000 people who had researched their family history were surveyed using Zoomerang International. The percentages of people who found London ancestors (more than three generations back) in each country was as follows: UK (60%), U.S. (55.6%), Canada (59.6%) and Australia (70.8%).These percentages were then applied to the white/European fraction of the population based on national census data, giving the following results: UK (33 million), US (107.8 million), Canada (14.6 million), Australia (12.7 million) = 168.1 million – approx 165 million.- (iii) Records launched today cover 12 major London regions: Poplar, Paddington, St Marylebone, St Pancras, Southwark, Islington, Stepney, Westminster, Lambeth, Wandsworth, Holborn and Hampstead. The remaining regions will launch online in the coming months.
